28th September 1997

Capturing vanishing beauties

By Arthur C Clarke

Nihal Fernando’s Sri Lanka: A Personal Odyssey is one of the most beautiful - and heart-breaking - books I have ever seen. The fantastic range of photographs and the hundreds of quotations that go with them provide a unique record of swiftly vanishing natural beauties which the world will not see again.

The quotations are extraordinarily apt and cover the whole field of literature. My only regret is that they do not include anything that I have written in praise of the country which has been my home for more than half my life!

Yet we should not regret the passing of everything that this Odyssey records. There is much that should be allowed to go. To quote from the poet who seems to be a favourite for both of us:

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

The book is available at all leading bookshops.

Who’s behind those mysterious parallels?

Alien Mysteries in Sri Lanka and Egypt’, a book by Mihindukulasuriya Susantha Fernando, will be launched on October 8 at 3 pm at the auditorium of the Sri Lanka Library Services Board (Sri Lanka National Library). The author will present the first copy of his book to Minister Lakshman Jayakody.

The guests of honour will be Professor M.B. Ariyapala, D. Litt. Honoris Causa, Colombo and Ruhuna Universities, Former Chancellor of University of Colombo and Former President and gold medallist of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka; and Dr. Chandana Jayaratne, BSc, PhD, FIP (SL), Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Colombo, Member of the Planetary Society and Consultant on Astronomy to the Arthur C. Clarke Centre for Modern Astronomy.

Dr. Jayaratne will also speak on ‘The phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects’, supported by a video programme on the subject.

The book is the result of exhaustive research carried out by the author on extraterrestrial phenomenon in Sri Lanka. The first ever work in such a field, undertaken by a Sri Lankan, the author describes some discoveries he has made, including that of 33 mysterious parallels between the ancient civilizations of Sri Lanka and Egypt, alluding to the possibility of extraterrestrial influence behind the two great cultures. How such parallels have come about is a baffling mystery, because the two civilizations commenced some 3000 years apart, under two separate religious and cultural backgrounds. Could there have been extraterrestrial intelligence in the shaping of the two civilizations?

Susantha Fernando’s most sensational discovery, as presented in the book, is the fact that the three main stupas at Anuradhapuraha, namely Mirisavati, Ruvanvali and Jetavana stand on the ground, oriented according to the layout of three stars in the Constellation of Orion. The three Great Pyramids at Giza, Cairo, have been also found by foreign scholars to be strangely oriented according to three stars of Orion. Susantha Fernando contends that the Anuradhapura stupas, like the pyramids, are also built on cardinal orientation by astral observation.

With pictures, maps and technical data on alien presence and power in the two ancient lands, "Alien Mysteries in Sri Lanka and Egypt" will interest laymen as well as scholars in the study of extraterrestrial phenomenon and of the two mystic peoples of Sri Lanka and Egypt. The book printed by Tharanjee Prints, Navinna, is on elegant 100 gsm art paper. The cover shows two aerial photographs of the three main stupas at Anuradhapura and the three Great Pyramids at Giza, Cairo.

The book will be available at a discounted price of Rs. 600/- at the book launching ceremony on October 8. The proceeds from the sale of the book on that day will go for local charities.

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